Vanda Strachan (UK)

MPhil in Greek and/or Roman History

I completed my undergraduate degree in Ancient History at the University of Edinburgh where spectacle, violence, and power in the Roman world were themes recurrent in my studies. In the Roman amphitheatre, these three collided with all the expense and extravagance the empire could muster and so the Roman Games came to dominate my attention. I’m particularly interested in mosaic representations of the games and the role of these mosaics in the domestic context. My MA dissertation focused on a violent and peculiar amphitheatre mosaic from a house in ancient Thydrus, modern El Djem in Tunisia.

In Oxford, the main thrust of my MPhil in Greek and Roman History will be to develop ideas that came from this research. Over the next two years, I also need to acquire the classical languages that will give me access to the original sources. Away from the arena, I find the flow of ideas and contacts and connections across the ancient world exciting. The far-flung corners of the map fascinate as do the geographers who described them, the seafarers who explored them, and the archaeology which continues to reveal them in surprising new light.

The Ertegun scholarship is extremely generous in both its extent and intent. This is an inspiring, lively, and supportive community of which I am both delighted and extremely grateful to be a part.